On Monday, professional developers took over development of Sparva.
I started building Sparva myself because I was curious. I wanted to learn how coding with AI worked, so I dove in. I had no idea what I was doing, which was the biggest draw for me. I love learning.
It worked. Sort of. The first version was rough. Sometimes it would find a board seat and list it as a full-time job, but I figured it out pretty quickly and got it to work properly. I kept refining. I kept improving.
Then I started showing it to people, doing demos, and getting feedback, which is when it really got exciting.
For example, Sparva didn't find mailing addresses at first. I was hyper-focused on email addresses, so it never occurred to me. Then someone said they needed it for lobbying purposes, something I should have known, so I built it.
I was careful not to do everything people mentioned, because I know one of the worst things founders face is scope creep, but when something made sense, I did it.
Looking back, Spring and Summer were invaluable. I learned how to design the architecture, refine the logic, and build the security features I had to have. I learned words and phrases that now make sense, so I can talk (relatively) intelligently about my product.
Most of all, I learned what Sparva could and should be. Not only what's built now, but what's coming later this year and next. If I'd hired developers in February, I would have paid them to build the wrong thing.
I always knew I'd need professionals to take it the rest of the way. Their first job is to take what I have built and turn it into an enterprise-level product that any size organization can trust with its data.
Not bad for something I started because I was curious.